Rant and Rave

This is written in response to Alan Goldberg's
rant about Tommy's irrelevancy to the show.

Dear Mr. Goldberg

Your observations of the Car Talk radio show are
astute, but I am afraid that you are unaware of
the true reason behind Tommy's bumbling radio
persona.

You see, Tommy is the whole show. There is no
Ray.

Prior to Car Talk, Tommy had developed a
moderately succesful ventriloquist act featuring
himself and his puppet sidekick, Ray. He traveled
around the countryside with his act, exploiting
the usual "the dummy is smarter than the
ventriloquist" schtick everywhere he went. This
continued until one day Tommy, forgetting for a
moment that his companion was made of felt, got so
aggrivated with Ray for making him look dumb all
the time (even though it was a part of the act)
that he chopped Ray's head off with a meat
cleaver. It did not take Tom long to realize that
he also had also separated his right hand from his
arm and ended his ventriloquism career in the same
stroke.

After this devastating blow to his career, Tommy
had to explore new options. One thing led to
another and soon he had adapted his act for radio,
and it eventually took the form we now know as Car
Talk. To this day, Tommy continues to utilize the
"dummy is smarter than the ventriloquist"
technique in his act, even though no one has a
clue which is which anyway.

I hope this explanation answers any questions you
may have about tommy's relevancy to the show.